Amduat

by RogueJMS

Summary:

A Deal is made in Taylor's final moment.

[Previously titled: Abyss of Waters, Lofty of Banks]

Chapter 1: Abyss of Waters

Taylor knew she was panicking.

She didn’t care, instead she used every emotion that she was experiencing to fuel her clamouring and her kicking.

It hadn’t even been a full minute since the locker door closed violently and she had vomited again because of the smell. The crawling things, squirming, slimy things living in the filth making themselves known as soon as she arrived only worsened things.

So, despite her urge to vomit again, to cry, to rage, to give up, to kill the Trio, to be let out, to be hugged by Emma, to cave the redhead’s face in, to… she kept kicking backwards and hitting the door with all the strength she had with all the momentum she could gain from such a small, cramped space.

The cruel parting words aired out by the Trio kept repeating in her mind as a mantra.

After a particular strong kick she felt something hitting her right leg and digging deep into her; in her panic she ignored it.

She shouldn’t have.

But even if she had stopped to look, her leg was encased in filth inside a locker whose only light source were three small parallel lines in the metal door with her back to the entry holes, so she wouldn’t have seen much. She wouldn’t have seen one of the two large screws that had supported the locker’s middle shelf (that had been removed to allow space for this prank) had, indeed, found purchase in her flesh and, with her moving her leg savagely, it had ripped it deep causing a small, but not unsubstantial, stream of blood to join the filth around her.

The first sign that something had deeply gone wrong was the sudden dizziness. She thought it might be whatever fumes the degraded trash was wafting that was making her weak but soon enough she started feeling cold and her skin felt clammy. Her breathing, that was already coming quick, started becoming desperate.

It was a single minute between the first effects and she coming to the realization of what was happening: she was dying…

It took two other horrifying desperate minutes for that realization to become reality.

Two of her last thoughts were of sadness for her dad who would grieve for her and of hope that she would be reunited with her mom.

Her third thought was how hopelessly she had lost control of her own life.

“Hello, Taylor Hebert.”

What?

There in the Shadows, in the corner of the cramped locker, there was a black Spider, made of webs and chains and Nothingness with bright orange eyes.

"Let’s make a deal.” Said the Spider “You are dying. But if you give me your body you will live. Help me fulfil my goals and I’ll help you with yours. What do you think?”

I don’- What? An hallucination? She felt the last of her conscious starting to slip away.

“You don’t have much time, as you can tell. So? The answer?”

Yes, please. After all, what harm was there to entertain her own hallucination in her last moments?

“Thank you.”

 

Ω

 

Waking up had been like coming up for air in the open ocean.

The waves hitting her and the current pushing her down.

It was only with force and meaning and a lot of effort that she finally had her head above water and she woke up.

The ceiling was white, the walls even whiter and her surroundings smelled like disinfectant.

She was laying down in a bed with metal railings and had something connecting to her arm.

Ah, the realization came. I’m in a hospital.

She closed her eyes, trying to reorganize her thoughts.

“So, that was all a dream?”

“No, you silly girl. It was all real.”

She jumped out of her bed, almost falling to the floor with the sudden scare she got.

“Who- Who are you and… what the hell do you mean it wasn’t a dream?”

The girl in front of her was dressed neatly in a black suit and black tie. But… everything else was like Taylor. It was like looking at a mirror. But the Taylor in front of her wasn’t her, Taylor knew she never walked that confidently, not anymore, with her back straight and her chin high… and her eyes were not the colour of a sunset, nor did they have multiple black rings inside of them. And her hair was not the blood red the woman in front of her sported. Nor was she that big in the chest department…

“That dream where you had revenge over the three people that tortured you for a year and a half? It wasn’t a dream.”

“Wha- so – they…” Taylor gulped and redirected her thoughts. “You haven’t explained who you are!? And why do you look like me?”

“Ah, yes. Of course. Introductions.” The girl in the black suit bowed slightly in greeting and said “I am the Control Devil.”

She raised from a slightly bended posture and smirked slightly.

“But since you and I have made an accord so I can take over your body, therefore making you, Taylor Hebert, a Fiend and my partner in this new World, you may call me Makima.”

Notes:

It isn't big enough to be called a One-Shot so...
I hope you enjoyed this Snippet.

The chapter Titles are all a reference to Egyptian Mythology: the night cycle is divided into hours and are named according to events that happened in those hours to Ra's boat while it sails in the Underworld (The Duat). Chaptes 1 and 2's title "Abyss of Waters, Lofty of Banks" is the name for the 10th hour (4 AM) where, among other things, Khepri joins with Ra in the boat. I am sure you guys understand the analogy I am trying to make. (Btw, simply "Abyss of Waters" is also the name of the 6th hour in the night cycle and it is the main realm of the god Osiris, where he presides over the dead - but let's ignore all that xd -.)

If you are reading this, let it be mentioned for the record that if you, whoever you - beautiful person you - are, pick up this concept and ride with it and make a full fic, I definetly do *not* mind just send the link pls so I can read it xd

Kudos if you did like it! Write down in the comments your thoughts!

Chapter 2: Lofty of Banks

Summary:

A conversation is had by the seaside, at night time.

“Ok, explain it again to me.”

“Very well. Is there any point, in particular, that I was amiss in explaining it better?”

“I still find it difficult to believe what you told me about Devils.”

“From the start then?”

“No. I understood everything. I just find it difficult to believe, but… then again you are right in front of me, so… Just explain it again, just in case.”

“All Devils are born in Hell-”

“In literal Hell?”

“In literal Hell with a unique name that correlates to the very essence of their being. They are the embodiment of the fear that surrounds the concept around their name.”

“And yours is Control Devil.”

“Correct. I embody the fear of control, conquest and domination.”

“That’s… a pretty large concept.”

“And people have a very large amount of fear for it... Fear of being controlled, losing control, staying in control. Of conquering and being conquered. Of being subjugated. Of being dominated. Everything hinges on the Name of the Devil and the amount of fear that it causes on sapient beings, both conscious and subconsciously.”

“Ok…” Taylor makes a motion to pick up a small stone by the seaside as she is hit with a sudden urge to chuck something at the water. “Are there any more powerful then you?”

“How about you tell me?”

Taylor frowns and throws the small stone with a flick. With her newfound strength she watched the stone fly with great speed before finally hitting the water a very long distance away before starting to bounce on the surface like a proper skipping stone.

“The Dark?”

“Hmm, bullseye. Just try not to say its name a lot. Any other?”

“Death.”

“Yup. 2 for 2. Any more?”

“…The Unknown”

The Devil hums a curious tune and says “Curious, that you went there. Those are what’s known as the Primal Fears, the very first ones and the ones who, both because and despite their age, still have a deep influence over the human psyche. Even the Devils themselves can’t help but fear them. But how about you tell me a new one?”

“A new one?”

“A Devil is born from a concept but only when people fear that concept. Can you think of the appearance of anything that recently ensured the birth of a new Devil?”

“I…”  She gulped and looked up to the sky. She watched the few stars shining through the spring night in thought, absentmindedly enjoying the sea waves hitting her bare feet softly. The Devil by her side kept her silence, with her red silhouette in odd contrast to the midnight blue of the water of the Bay. She too was barefoot, wiggling her toes into one of the few patches of sand of the rocky beach they were standing on.

“Parahumans…” Taylor whispered. “…and Endbringers.”

Makima looked at Taylor, tilting her head like a curious cat, and smiled a small smile. Her eyes though showed no amusement, only determination… and hunger.

“Exactly” The Devil whispered back just as quietly.

The Devil took a deep reassuring breathe and proclaimed in a self-assured, intrinsically hypnotic, tone of voice of someone both deeply accustomed to making speeches and immensely good at them: “This world is losing control. Don’t you think? It’s high time someone comes and puts things to rights. To where they belong. Humanity is losing control over the world and over itself, both on a general and an individual basis, and though I too take pleasure and power over this fact, it is, nevertheless, highly annoying and highly bothersome on a personal level. Such fear… but no direction, no purpose. Just hopeless fear. The specific fear of being controlled by a parahuman Master alone is giving me half the fuel I need just to regather my previous strength after finding myself here.” A soft snort from the Devil “The very fact I am here, however…” The Devil closes its eyes as her head tilts fully backwards. She hums again, in clear pleasure this time, and continues “… almost seems like an act of Providence.” She opens her eyes again and looks to Taylor’s own. The teenage girl finds that she can’t look away. “You and me, Taylor. We’ll do great things. You will be the Hero you want to be and I… I shall help you put things back in order.”

Suddenly, from behind them, the night lit up in flames, colouring the waters of the bay to a deep orange and burning red. Taylor broke the staring contest and turned around to look at what was happening. Above them, on the concrete dock, large plumes of flame where being jetted across the Docks. The sounds of a fight started to make themselves known… and for some reason it involved dogs? Because the deep sounds of barking echoed and reverberated over the Docks were definitely dog-like, all while the sounds of someone faintly giving out orders could be herd over them. The flames though, only one parahuman in the Bay could make them so large so it was no mystery who made them.

The Devil was close enough to Taylor’s ear that she could feel the warm breath on it and the strange but faint smell of sulphur to enter her nose.

“It seems it is time of your debut.”

The Devil walks out of the waves and elegantly puts her shoes on.

“So? Are you ready?”

With her figure half turned to the steps leading back to the dock The Devil extends a hand invitingly and smiles tantalizingly.

“Ma'at?”

Notes:

Welp, the previous post blew up by my standards and Holy Shit.

I love you all.

Here's a new snippet of this fanfic concept. I hope ya'll like it.

Kudos and don't forget to comment!

Chapter 3: Ma'at

Summary:

Dancing with the Devil in the moonlight.

Lisa was really trying not to panic.

She just had one of the most terrifying parahumans in the East Coast chasing after her but let’s ignore that.

Because what was in front of her was, somehow, even worse.

The girl in a suit seemed to inspect the downed dragon with such professional disinterest that Lisa couldn’t help but compare her to her boss. Signs of violence around them with subtle threats of fates worse than death on the tip of their tongue, all while seemingly immersed in a demeanour not dissimilar to that of a disillusioned front door vacuum cleaner salesmen who already knows you’ll decline before even opening his mouth or a particularly bored stock market broker who really just wants to sell his leftover penny stocks to finally get on with his day to do more important things.

The blood in her hand holding Lung’s – and Lisa’s power couldn’t stress this enough – Corona Gemma, literally someone’s brain, dripped slowly onto the pavement.

The girl in the suit’s eyes moved to inspect the piece of – can’t fucking stress this enough – Lung’s brain with far more interest than to the corpse right next to her.

After what seemed like minutes of torturous silence, broke only by Bitch’s dog’s tired panting, the girl moved her attention again, this time to them.

The girl left the brain fall to the concrete floor.

With a sudden movement of her hand all the blood coating it disappeared.

The tall girl approached slowly, unsurprisingly not one of the Undersider’s dared to move. The feeling of being in the presence of something far above them seemed to resonate in Lisa. Her power proceeded to inform her, that no, it wasn’t a master effect or emotional manipulation of some kind, the girl really just had the charisma to make someone piss themselves of fright alone.

At some point, the understanding of the futility of running away came to Lisa so she just resigned herself to whatever was going to happen.

“Hello.”

The voice that came from the girl’s lips was, suprinsingly, somehow soft, somehow both sweet and spicy, paradoxically both shy and confident, and was accompanied with an endearing tilt of her head. Her power confirmed that the very faint smell that Lisa’s nose was registering was sulfuric in nature.

Alec, the suicidal idiot, was the first to respond.

“Damn, girl. That was one heck of a lobotomy!”

“Thank you.” The girl said back, still just as softly.

“Is he… is he dead?” Brian’s own brain seemed to finally finish restarting.

The girl slowly looked to Grue.

Then back at Lung.

“Probably. Although I did my best just to target the necessary brain matter, he might not recover and just die of blood loss. After all, my attack method was somewhat blunt and not very indicated for the purpose of safely removing essential organs. Lung is all about escalation, so I figured the key to defeat him was to attack immediately and overwhelmingly, giving no chance for him to ramp up.” She spoke still as unnervingly softly as ever but with a sudden energy of someone who had been keen on doing some amateur lobotomy for a long while. “But I might have gone overboard.” She added seemingly ashamed but with no change in tone of voice to accompany the sentiment and shrugged delicately.

“Hum,…” Lisa tried to speak, while ignoring her power’s cryptic answers to her questions about the girl in front of her. So far, only something about social exclusion (probably caused by bullying by age peers), troubled home life (missing parental figure: Dad? Mom? Both?), recent-ish trigger and first night out as a cape… she just killed Lung on her first night? What. The. Fu- “Hi, the name’s Tattletale.” She proceeded to introduce the Undersider’s as quickly as she could, each one saying Hi to the girl in their own particular ways. “What’s yours?”

The head tilt made an appearance again.

“My name is Ma’at. A pleasure to meet you all.”

Lisa felt the hair at the back of her neck rise at the girl’s uttering of her cape name.

“Here.” The girl continued, her hand going for an inner pocket in her suit. She removed a small black piece of paper. It was business card of all things, her power informed her, onyx with romalian type, raised lettering, pale nimbus white colour, she could see the tasteful thickness of it and to raise the point home it even had a fucking watermark.

Lisa received the card and took a moment to read it.

 

Independent and Co-Op powered services. Advocacy and Notarial services.

Ma’at

Administrative Services

Verified and experienced cape. 

E-mail: [email protected]   Official PHO: Horseman_CONQ    Phone: XXXXXXXX

 

“I am an independent and I mostly work inside legal boundaries, however if you want any extra help don’t hesitate to call. I am sure we can come to an exclusive overt deal.” The girl added with a determined tone of voice. Then she looked at Lisa. Her eyes steely, full with something that gave the Thinker shivers of something. She wasn’t in the state of mind to unpack that look, maybe later in the privacy of her room she can actually discern that, yes, the murderous cape was flirting with her. “If you want to contact me for something outside of work you can leave a message on my personal PHO handle.” The girl added in a strong whisper just to Lisa. “It’s Cntrl_Devil, give me a text, for you I’ll answer…” The girl smirked, the first ever proper facial expression in that entire conversation. “…any time.”

The sounds of a motorbike started echoing through the empty streets of the Docks, Lisa’s power informing her that Armsmaster finally arrived.

“Well, it’s best for us to go.” Lisa gulped. “I’ll see you around?” She immediately hated the fact that it came out as a question and quickly tried to correct herself. “I mean, you can come with us. If you want. We can give you a ride out of here.”

The girl in the suit simply smiled a small smile and declined with a shake of her head.

“No, thank you. You guys go ahead.”

“Huh, yeah. Bye” Lisa said already retreating from the situation.

“Goodbye.”

Notes:

Hi...

So... Life has been a busy mess. I am trying not to give you guys false hopes of me continuing this concept fic but damn if the writing bug hasn't burrowed deep in my skull so I produced one more chapter for this.

Like, The Inevitable Violence needs an update and despite me already having the chapters figured out I have yet to have enough time to sit down and write it all down. And the worst part is the next two months are going to be hellishly busy for me. I won a research grant for next month and in October I have to present my MD dissertation, so don't expect anything of me beyond seeing me lurking through RoyalRoad, Ao3 and SpaceBattles while I am procrastinating. So, please be understanding :( I am sorry.

If the Muse wants for me to write, I'll try, but expect very little...

Chapter 4: At the Gates

Summary:

Curiosity attracts a cat...

Lisa was glued to her computer for the past two days.

Partly because of her boss but mostly because of the pure burning curiosity pumping her with a certain nervous energy that egged her on.

There was something wrong with that girl.

There was something wrong with this scenario.

Lung had been taken alive to PRT containment by Armsmaster and full credit was being given to him for the capture.

And yet her power had told her that Lung was long gone from the world and yet he was shown alive but in sedated state by an official PRT video that was released to the public. Even her power seemed to have changed its mind on Lung’s status and yet seemed to fail to provide any explanations.

She felt a shiver through her spine crack her composure.

There was something wrong with this scenario.

Never had her power failed her like this.

Sure, there were frustrating times where her power would run in circles or those times when, to her great embarrassment, her power noticed some detail and through it ended up spewing bad info that would end up screwing her over.

But never did it go as inert and monotone in its given information like this.

She closed her laptop with a defeated huff. It was 2 in the morning and if at this point she hadn’t come up with answers then she wouldn’t have them any time soon.

She sprawled across the new sofa in the Undersider’s lair and closed her eyes.

Suddenly she got up half-hazardly with quick desperate movements and ran to her cape costume. She rummaged through her tool belt and after a few moments of searching she ended up not finding it. So she started exploring her room and its every nook and cranny, until she found what she wanted under an empty forgotten coffee cup.

 

Independent and Co-Op powered services. Advocacy and Notarial services.

Ma’at

Administrative Services

Verified and experienced cape.

E-mail: [email protected]   Official PHO: Horseman_CONQ    Phone: XXXXXXXX

 

Her power, ever loyal and ever annoying, proceeded to puke information about the business card she already knew.

After all, she had spent the first day looking at it like a demented asylum resident would look to the padded wall of their room: blankly and desperately.

She had run out of all avenues of research, and nothing had really paid off.

The most she got were a few rumours of cape stalkers seeing someone who vaguely matched the girl’s description entering Faultline’s club.

She turned the business card around. There, scribbled by her own hand, was the girl’s personal PHO contact info…

Feeling unusually bold (probably more desperate than courageous) she went back to her computer, turned it back on, and went straight to PHO.

 

All_Seeing_Eye [02:05]: Hello, are you awake?

 

The responding message came only a few moments later.

 

Cntrl_Devil [02:08]: Yes, I am now.

 

Now? Shit, did she wake her up? Before she could respond back she received another message.

 

Cntrl_Devil [02:08]: Yes, I am now.

Cntrl_Devil [02:08]: Let me guess…

Cntrl_Devil [02:09]: You are the cute brown-haired girl I talked with that fiery night?

 

Her power wasn’t needed for Lisa to understand such basic security check that the girl was doing. She decided to be playful about it, after all, suit girl had flirted first.

 

Cntrl_Devil [02:09]: You are the cute brown-haired girl I talked with that fiery night?

All_Seeing_Eye [02:09]: Hey, I take pride in my blonde hair! Although it can’t be compared with how good yours looks. That black hair with red highlights suits you.

Cntrl_Devil [02:09]: Thank you. You are Tattletale, then?

All_Seeing_Eye [02:09]: Aye, the 1 and only! And u r the grl in the suit. How is life these past few days?

Cntrl_Devil [02:09]: Busy and profitable. Though I wouldn’t mind a break.

All_Seeing_Eye [02:10]: Really? Then how about we go for some coffee together?

Cntrl_Devil [02:10]: Hmm. Sounds like a good time. Any place you recommend?

All_Seeing_Eye [02:10]: There’s Abraham’s by South Avn.

Cntrl_Devil [02:10]: Never went, wouldn’t mind checking it out. Say, today? At 1600 hours?

All_Seeing_Eye [02:11]: Sounds perfect. See you then?

Cntrl_Devil [02:11]: Of course, can’t wait to see you again :3

Cntrl_Devil [02:11]: Good night!

All_Seeing_Eye [02:11]: Bye, have a good night!

 

Lisa took a deep breathe.

She was slightly disturbed by the small smile spreading across her face.

Time to go to bed.

She turned the computer off for a second time that night.

It was only by the time she had cocooned herself in her bed that she remembered something very important…

“Shit, what the hell am I going to wear tomorrow?”

Notes:

This is an update to basically state that I am not dead...
Just busy af. I might not be able to update anything at least until the end of this month.
Also, I changed the title (again) because if I am continuing this the main title no longer makes sense.
Also, also, "At the Gates" is not a reference to Carthaginian General Hannibal; it is yet another reference to the Duat. The Gates of The Duat is basically the point in the horizon where the sun meets the Earth (sunset) and signifies the entrance of Ra into the Underworld. The title in this chapter means that Lisa is starting her own voyage... or maybe smth else.
Also, also, also xdd to spare you guys a trip to the Wiki: Amduat is a title of an ancient egytpian book which translates literally to "That Which Is In the Afterworld" but has another translation as "Book of What is in the Underworld".

Hope you enjoyed!

Chapter 5: One of Forms

Summary:

Just a normal coffee date.

Her anxiety over her clothes was only vindicated when she finally arrived at the coffee shop.

The girl in the suit was already there by the time she arrived, wearing a semi-formal set of dark blue jeans and a black blazer with a simple red tie, and was seated near one of the windows sipping tea.

Lisa had decided to forgo coming in her costume as well as something more relaxed and had exited her house wearing a similar set of semi-formal clothing with the exemption being that instead of a tie, she wore a nice long blazer and a simple white shirt.

One of the things that caused Lisa to pause though was the fact that the girl no longer had red accents in her hair and was wearing thick black rimmed glasses on her face hiding simple brown eyes. It took only a second for her power to confirm who she was but it was enough for Lisa to hesitate for her power had also previously confirmed that the previous hair colour was natural and so were her strange eyes that gave the girl perfect vision.

She dismissed it as part of Ma’at’s cape costume but still mentally filed the observation for later.

She approached the teenage girl and was quick to greet her in a manner as friendly as she could be.

“Hello! Thank you for coming!”

The girl smiled fleetingly and greeted her with a “Hello” and waved to the chair in front of her.

“My name is Lisa. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“You can call me Taylor and the feeling’s mutual. I have only ordered some tea while I waited. Do you want anything?”

“Sure.”

The raven-haired girl raised her hand and snapped her fingers producing a clear sound that swiftly caught the staff’s attention.

One of the waiters quickly approached them, a gangly male teen wearing a stiff, nervous smile, who softly asked for their orders. Lisa, having decided that the day would be long, asked for a macchiato while her companion simply waived the waiter off.

Both girls started to make small talk as soon as the boy left their side.

The small talk quickly evolved to a contest of wits as they took each other’s measurements.

Lisa quickly deduced Taylor to be a pragmatic, intelligent and book-smart girl who seemed to only recently having broken through her shell, both as an introvert and as a naïve teenager. Lisa tried to keep her power away from new observations for if she had it on it would give her all the answers quickly, taking the fun off this endeavour. But Lisa couldn’t keep her power too far away for it would give her a headache, so she used to confirm or deny her own suppositions.

“So how long have you been a cape?” Lisa asked fully knowing that Taylor debuted when she rescued the Undersiders.

“A few months. I have been busy fully exploring my powers before actually going out.”

“Nicely done. You have no idea how many newbies go half-cocked and die before they can even get their names in places beyond the PRT reports.”

“Somewhere between 25 to 30 per day across the Eastern Seaboard alone.”

Lisa had to hide her smile in her carton cup.

“And the business idea?”

“I find being a hero to be a constraining ideal and a villain to be too singular a path. So independent was the correct move. I have to say I wasn’t expecting the amount of bureaucracy needed to establish myself and my business.”

“So… the PRT knows about you?” Lisa blinked.

“I recently registered in the NY branch of the PRT.” Taylor answered.

Lisa had to restrain herself to not let her jaw drop for a second there. Shit, she thought, That answers why couldn’t find anything in BROCKTON’S PRT! The only PRT branch database she had access thanks to Coil. The different branches had both a lot of independence between each other and a distinctive rivalry depending on the directors in charge. Of course, the New York director wouldn’t say anything about another independent getting registered in their sector to other directors unless they had recruited them to their branch. Especially if Taylor half-assed her obligatory power assessment and obfuscated her real powers from the PRT, making her seem weaker than she was to the powers above. Technically, that omission of the truth wasn’t even illegal since some Thinker down in Ohio broke PRT’s database and used the detailed information on his city’s independents to either kill them or incentivize them to join his gang. Sure, a common database existed between all branches but the information was sometimes even vaguer than the ones in the private servers.

Lisa put down her cup and inspected the girl in front of her.

“Can you tell me what you did to Lung?”

The raven-haired girl tilted her head, as if in consideration, making Lisa reminisce about that night, and said:

“It seems he survived.”

“No, he didn’t. He was a corpse last I saw him. You opened up his skull and took part of his brain away. Even he can’t survive that.”

“Well.” The girl sighed with a gallic shrug. “Then I don’t know what to tell you.”

“But you did do something.” Lisa accused, slightly preening at knowing she was right.

The girl named Taylor simply picked up the saucer then, lifted the teacup to her mouth and sipped with her eyes closed.

The moment she opened her eyes, Lisa felt as if the floor had given out on her at the same time her head was cleaved in half.

She tried to breathe but it felt as if there was a hanging rope around her throat, ready to be hefted across the coffee shop’s rafters to lift her and smother her until she twitched no more.

She tried to move but her body felt cold as if she had been bitten by a red and black snake whose frigid venom had filled her veins, replaced her blood, and paralyzed her muscles.

She tried to think but her power filled her head with such noise she felt as if one of her neurons had rebelled and car bombed her brain.

The girl who was Ma’at had yellow and red eyes, perfect circles upon circles of those colours with no pupil whatsoever.

The entity smiled – a small, amused smile – and spoke in a deliberate tone of voice:

“Perhaps I did. But we both know you won’t do anything about it.”

The girl in the suit drank once more from the teacup, closing her eyes in satisfaction at the taste.

With that motion, the overwhelming feelings assaulting Lisa disappeared as quickly as they came.

She had to grip her armrests to prevent herself from collapsing of relief at the sudden lifting of the metaphysical weight bearing down on her.

She gulped.

For a moment there was naught but silence between the occupants at the table. Feeling she needed to reconnect with reality, Lisa had taken to continue sipping her large macchiato all the while wishing she was drinking an Irish coffee instead. Taylor, who regained her soft brown eyes, was looking outside of the window watching the crowds moving about.

The silence was broken only by the waiter, this time a homely girl with lips drawn in the shape of a content smile and hands full of callouses, who asked if everything was good.

Both girls at the table gave their answers in affirmation and then the waiter asked if they wanted anything else.

Lisa could not resist and asked for a few of the chocolate cookies that were displayed at the front of the shop; Taylor, instead, asked for the chocolate cake with the strawberry on top plus another round of tea, this time of bitter black tea to pair with the sweet delicacy.

The silence continued for a few more moments.

“Can I ask…” Lisa stumbled. “What exactly are your powers?”

“Oh? I thought you would be more discreet in your approach.”

“Well, I don’t think that will work anymore.”

“And why do you want to know?”

“Well, can’t very well hire you if I don’t know what your capabilities are, can I?”

“Fair enough. Before that, however, why do you want to hire me exactly?”

Lisa stopped talking as the waiter arrived with their orders. As soon as the waiter moved on, the Thinker spoke again as she nibbled on her cookie:

“Tell me: what do you know of Coil?”

Notes:

Well, I am not dead... *yet*.
Unfortunately, I am even busier than normal since I was not able to finish my MD last month having needed to push forward the delivery date on my dissertation.
SO! Expect updates to be erratic.

EDIT: Since there have been questions for awhile of Taylor's capabilities as a Fiend, I will say that those questions will be answered either next chapter or the one after the next. This fic will most likely focus more on the sheer existential threat that Taylor/Makima are than anything else, they are after all that fucking OP inside of the Wormverse. I can tell you though that, like said on this chapter, it has been a few months (timeline, shit... is there one?), of both Taylor aclimating with her powers as a Fiend, being host to Makima and being... *groomed*(?) by Makima. I do have to remind you that early Taylor is weak-willed in the sense that she is easily influenced while at same time being very stubborn, she is literally at her weakest point at the Locker... so. Also, let us remind ourselves of Makima's ultimate motivation: the want of family. Makima is a wonderful contrast of paradoxes: she wants a world of equals, so she can have that family, yet her powers are inherently opposite to that objective (kinda on the same vein as Shard Powers, huh, who would have guess?) since they force her to see people as below her. To Taylor I can quickly invision her modulating her view to see all villains as below and after a few more adjustments she could probably see a lot of people as below her with the exceptions of some few heroes that she sees as equals and the Triumvirate (before she finds out about Cauldron) and Scion (before she finds out what it is) who would be above her.

In conclusion: both characters and their interection probably need a better writer to characterize them xd

Anyway, I hope you guys liked the chapter!

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 2 of A Rogue's Ramblings